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Departmental Public Consultation

Volume 491: debated on Tuesday 21 April 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much (a) his Department and (b) the Department for Constitutional Affairs spent on public consultations in each of the last five years. (266176)

Most of the Ministry of Justice and the former Department for Constitutional Affairs public consultations conducted in the last five years were covered by departmental costs as an integral part of the policy-making process. No breakdown exists for those costs and to provide one would incur disproportionate cost. However, the following table shows where activity over and above a standard consultation has been carried out and related cost details are available because the consultation was therefore funded by a different method.

Name of consultation

Cost (£)

2006 consultations

Openness in the Family Courts -Confidence and Confidentiality

28,000

Legal Aid: a sustainable future (joint consultation with Legal Services Commission)

123,500

2007 consultations

Openness in the Family Courts - a new approach

14,000

Judicial Appointments: the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary

15,000

War-making powers and international treaties

14,000

NOMS Strategic Plan for Reducing Reoffending

75,000

NOMS Believing we can - engagement with the faith based sector to support work to reduce reoffending

10,000

NOMS Third Sector Strategy

20,000

2

MOJ Third Sector Strategy

35,500

OCJR Improving the criminal justice process for young witnesses

2,000

2008 Consultations

NOMS Best Value in Probation

39,500

Local Authority Charges for Property Search Services (joint consultation with Communities and Local Government)

12,000

Titan Prisons

£1,210

Election Day - Weekend Voting

6,153.95

Murder, Manslaughter and Infanticide: Proposal for reform of the Law

10,254

Rules for Mandatory Polygraph Tests for Sex Offenders

£300

Reducing Re-offending in London

13,995.26

Reviewing the Mental Capacity Act 2005: Forms Supervision and Fees

6,300

1 Matched by Legal Services Commission.

2 Plus £18,000 for joint consultation events for NOMS Believing We Can and NOMS Third Sector Strategy.

3 On 19 May 2008 for the answer to PQ 205828, a figure of £12,000 was given. This was an estimate of likely costs. This figure was then confirmed as £9,500 in time for publication in the answer to PQ 259572 on 3 March 2009.